Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

RESURRECTION OF CULTURED HEATHENISM 141this aid, to make him capable of it. It is almostthe same thing to say there is no clear conception ofmoral character in God or of man's personal relationto Him.But thirty years after Seneca's time there appearedin Greek literature an author of great name andwide influence, who may almost be termed a heathencounterpart of Philo. For Plutarch and Philo intheir view of the relation of philosophy to religion,in the general identity of their philosophical tenets,and in the attitude of their minds to religion, hold,the one being a Greek and the other a Jew, an analogousposition to each other. The time and outwardcircumstances of Plutarch's life were these. He wasorn at Chasronea in Boaotia about the year 50. Atthe time of Nero's visit to Greece he is found studyingphilosophy at Athens under Ammonius of Alexandria.He is known to have visited Egypt. He was morethan once at Home, and seems to have given lecturesthere in the time of Domitian, which were largelyfrequented by persons of consideration. He formedfriendships with noble Romans, and dedicated worksto them. In later years he is said to have been heldin high esteem by the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian,and he is supposed to have died in the reign oflatter, about the year. 125. During this long life hwas devoted to philosophy and literature, and stillmore to the religion of his country. On these subjectshe was probably acquainted with every movementof thought in the cultured world of the Roman Empire.Thus from the beginning of Domitian's reign to themiddle of Hadrian's, his works mav be taken as anudex of the philosophic mind then prevailing. Hepeaks as a priest of Apollo in his ancestral religion,